Monthly Archives: May 2018

And a lot of crap. As usual. But watching crap films is still instructive.

Annihilation was a trip. Loved it. Loved it more for not knowing much about it going in.

Den Of Thieves was surprisingly great; if a little long.

Still not seen A Quiet Place or Isle of Dogs

Marvel’s two this year were great. They have tentpole cinema nailed. The mix of fun, suspense, action, comedy and surprise is stirred to perfection.

My friend made me watch Defendor. A recent-ish Woody Harrelson joint about a mentally ill man who thinks he’s a superhero. I’ve seen this done before – badly – but the hard mix of dumb comedy, gruesome scenes and real heartbreak was nailed.

Got around to seeing Jumanji which was surprisingly fun. Discovered the writers used to write for Community, so that’ll be why.

Also I Tonya, Three Billboards, The Post, Ready Player One and You Were Never Really There were solid.

Still not watched my Mother screener. It seems like it’ll be hard work. See also Sacred Dear.

TV

Legion, Westworld, Happy! The Alienist, Counterpart and Billions are all doing it for me.

as well as old friends, The Blacklist (which needs a shot int he arm), Homeland (which has some aggressively anti-Trump fire in its belly) and Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Superhero TV has not been great of late, Legion excepted obvs, but Marvel’s Runaways was really nicely executed, nippy and oblique without being tiresome.

MUSIC

Superorganism, Hookworms and Janelle Monae have been my favourites this year.

An OCD businessman steers his crumbling LA mafia family away from violence with a real estate deal but his clumsy mobsters mistakenly put the squeeze on a reclusive clan of shapeshifting monsters.

AND

THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED

A feisty government clerk searches for the people who murdered her friend at a Brexit protest, putting herself in the crosshairs of an incompetent police unit trying to pin the crime on a debonair whistleblower.